Larry Hama has always established that G.I. Joe isn’t necessarily about war, action, ninjas, or gun battle…at its core, it is about the characters. It is the personality of the characters that keeps them alive and keeps them viable throughout the years.

I would maintain that this remains true in Hollywood as well, and that the translation of these characters into film is equally important for the movie to remain timeless. After all, we don’t all remember the fantastic Aliens movie because of the gun fights, right? We remember it because of characters like Hicks, Ripley, and Hudson. THEY are what made that film, not splattering acid blood all over the place.

So now that things are starting to take shape around G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which characters am I most looking forward to seeing in action? Let’s break it down after the jump:

The hits just keep on coming… these aren’t TV Spots or trailers, they look to be Celebs.com interviews with the G.I. Joe: Retaliation stars, including everyone from Ray Stevenson to Elodie Yung, Dwayne Johnson, DJ Cotrona, and Adrianne Palicki.

There doesn’t appear to be much new actual film footage in these interviews, but the interviews themselves are still very enlightening, but keep in mind some movie spoilers might be contained. Click the Read the Rest of the Story link below to check them all out. Thanks to Skinny from SerpentorsLair.org for the keen eye.

We’ve seen snippets of this scene quite a bit over the past months, but IGN has now posted a movie clip with a lot more footage from this training session. Check out some great Snake Eyes, Jinx, and RZA standing there like a boss footage below.

So remember a while ago when G.I. Joe: Retaliation was featuring that four minute extended clip from the ninja cliffside battle before Hansel & Gretel? If you missed it, do not fear, Comic Book Movie to the rescue! Over on the CBM YouTube page, they have posted the full four minute cliffside battle sequence, which is… wow. Impressive.

Okay, these featurettes have been flying hot and heavy over the past few days, so let’s catch a breath and get them all gathered up in one place shall we?

We’ve had “behind the scenes” we’ve had TV spots, and we’ve had the great 20 second character profiles. All of them, when assembled, make for some very cool pre-film hype. I can tell you, I’m flipping out over here right now. Lots of great footage, I can’t even believe we’re almost within 2 weeks of this thing.

Click the “Read the Rest of the Story” link below to get a nice, well-organized rundown of all of the character profiles that have aired so far:

Ha! I was just on Twitter talking back and forth with nailbiter111 from Comic Book Movie, and said that the only possible video vignette there was left to do would be one for Jinx. Then, all of a sudden, there it was. Paramount International has loaded up on video today. Check out Jinx below!

Collider.com has scored some exclusive images from G.I. Joe: Retaliation featuring Snake Eyes, Flint, Jinx, Roadblock, Duke, and Joe Colton. The images look to take place throughout various parts of the film, with the Joes in varying states of distress.

I know we’ve seen the Colton and shirtless Flint ones before, but the image of the four characters walking through fire is definitely a new one. If you look at Roadblock, too, it looks as if he’s holding that suitcase launching system that Firefly and Zartan have been using in so many of the TV Spots and trailers.

Well, this is a fine wake up call for a Monday morning, especially when my body still feels like it’s an hour earlier. Entertainment.ie, which appears to be a European film site, has posted an exclusive clip from G.I. Joe: Retaliation featuring the very exciting Mountain Battle at the Arashikage temple!

Yes, there is a considerable amount of footage that we’ve seen, but there is also plenty that we haven’t seen. It’s only about a minute in length, but it’s an AWESOME minute.

Check it out at Entertainment.ie! It’s not embeddable, unfortunately, but as soon as there is one to embed, I’ll have it here.

EDIT: Video is now up on Paramount International’s YouTube page, which means embedded goodness!

Wow, it doesn’t seem like it’s already been 20 days since Twitziller started this campaign, and if the next 20 days go this quickly, I’ll be one heck of a happy Joefan, because I’ll be sitting in a movie theater getting ready to watch G.I. Joe: Retaliation!! Today Twitziller covers one of the focal points of the entire film, and one that seems poised to deliver the thrills and excitement that perhaps the Paris Pursuit scene in the Rise of Cobra did not. Time will tell…

#21:

With reports already out there that this mountain battle sequence will feature a 10 minute homage to issue #21, I think many of us are pretty excited to see how this will all finally transpire. The most fascinating thing is that much of this battle has already been seen by folks, between the various trailers and the four minute sequence prior to Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. All of that being said, there is still a sense that seeing this on the big screen within the framework of the story will be an experience for sure.

I feel like I continue to hammer on the Rise of Cobra and the Paris Pursuit sequence specifically, but that’s not my intention. I just thing that sequence being the main focus of the first G.I. Joe film was a mistake. Beyond the fact that it was reportedly just a Stephen Sommers pet project that found life within a G.I. Joe movie, so much of it was a drastic departure from what many fans love about G.I. Joe. I actually didn’t mind it as much as many people did, but with science fiction suits of armor, it didn’t necessarily feel like a G.I. Joe focused battle sequence.

The mountain battle on the other hand, with Snake Eyes, Jinx, and Red Ninjas galore, feels ripped from the pages of the Marvel Comics. Fans and audience members who see this on the big screen have a palpable G.I. Joe related memory to tie it back to, and the fact that it was choreographed and implemented so well only serves to enhance that feeling. It certainly looks like it’ll be a terrific sequence in the film, and one I cannot wait to experience myself, especially in 3D.

Follow Twitziller on Twitter for the latest updates to this, and you can keep hitting up GeneralsJoes to do the same. Big thanks as always to Twitziller for allowing me to mirror his content here and for going through this project. It’s an impressive feat, to be sure. Previous entries can be seen below.